In recent years the addition of a turbocharger has become popular as a means for boosting the power of internal combustion engines. To this end, many auto makers have tried turbo charging to extract more power from small engines. These manufacturers have typically used the economies of volume production to make it feasible to have exhaust manifolds cast by the thousand to direct exhaust gasses to the turbocharger turbine wheel. These manifolds were generally quite acceptable in use but were not usually the best design to extract the highest performance possible. The casting process left a rough internal finish which restricted the flow of exhaust gasses.
There is also a large demand for turbo manifolds which can be fitted to engines which were either supplied without turbo's or, were supplied with poorly designed manifolds which could be exchanged for an after market manifold for improved performance. These after market manifolds are usually constructed using a flat steel plate type flange which bolts to the cylinder head of the engine. The plate has holes in it which correspond with the exhaust ports of the engine. Welded to this flange plate are steel pipes which direct the exhaust gasses away from the cylinder head exhaust ports and into a common collection area. This collection area has a flange at its exhaust end which is configured to match the bolt pattern of the turbo charger inlet. The combined gasses from all the cylinders are routed via this flange, into the turbocharger turbine inlet. These welded pipe style manifolds are free flowing but difficult and expensive to construct. Due to the thin metal used in their construction these manifolds are also prone to failure when under the stress of the intense heat generated in a turbo charged engines exhaust system. These manifolds require many separate components to produce and require a great deal of skilled welding.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that an improved system and method for producing turbocharger manifolds would have many applications for internal combustion engines.